Victoria Concordia Crescit
by MF Goon
Summary: When Lily Evans gets a new boyfriend, James Potter decides he's finally going to get over her for good. Of course, nothing ever lasts during teenage years. JPLE, copious swearing, hopefully not so copious cliches.
1. In The Beginning

**Victoria Concordia Crescit**

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns everything you recognise.

**1. In the beginning**

It's a glorious spring day in '77 when it happens.

At the usual magnificent feast that is breakfast at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, one simple, innocuous event changes the fate of Wizarding Britain forever. A straightforward answer to a straightforward question, with ramifications for generations to come.

"Lily, would you do me the pleasure of accompanying me to Hogsmeade next weekend?"

A faint blush, a quick flash of a grin and a reply.

"Of course. I'd love to."

A matching grin, this one lasting slightly longer. "Great. It's a date then."

Emerald green eyes meet sapphire blue, one last exchange of quick smiles and he leaves. Lily Evans turns back towards the Gryffindor table, unable to stop the pleased little smile that has taken up residence on her face.

Beside her, Marlene McKinnon's jaw is loosely hanging slightly open. Lily pretends not to notice her best friend's rather unattractive facial expression, instead focusing her concentration on lightly buttering her toast, just how she likes it.

"Lily. I don't mean to be crude, but I'm going to be." Good old Marlene, always straight-up with what she's thinking. "Rudy _fucking_ Menzies just asked you to Hogsmeade, oh my god you jammy bitch he is so stupidly fucking _good looking_."

The words tumble out in a rush, picking up speed towards the end the way Marlene's words always do when she's excited.

"Thanks, Marlene. I hadn't noticed," is the demure reply, finished with a hearty crunch as Lily bites into her toast. Outside she looks every inch calmness personified. Inside, she feels as though a particularly cheery leprechaun is putting on a rendition of Riverdance, complete with Irish jig.

Rudy Menzies is indeed "stupidly fucking good looking". Tall and handsome, he exudes a quiet confidence and grace that comes with being born into aristocracy. With stylishly messy dark hair that rather reminds her of Paul McCartney, his startlingly clear blue eyes had been declared the nicest owned by a boy at Hogwarts by Lily and her dormmates last year during a particularly giggly all-nighter.

It's not just his physical attributes that attract her to Rudy. She had gotten to know him during their prefect rounds together last year, as the two were often paired up to patrol. Intelligent without being overly studious, he was always quick with a joke, able to make her laugh with his goofy sense of humour and easy-going nature.

And now he had asked her to Hogsmeade. What should she wear? Should she look like she was making a special effort, or would that scare him? He had said it was a date, but-

"How _fucking_ excited are you?! I am so jealous of you, those _eyes_," Marlene brusquely interrupts Lily's inner monologue with her characteristic excited tone and favourite swearword.

Lily had once asked Marlene why she loved the word fuck the way she did.

"Because it rolls so nicely off the tongue. Look; fuck, _fuck, _fucking, fuuuuuck. And it's a fantastically versatile word. Put it anywhere in a sentence, it works perfectly. It's the bacon of the English language."

Bacon and the word fuck were two of Marlene's favourite things in the world. Lily often wondered why her best friend refused to admit her obvious compatibility with Sirius Black, who shared these characteristics with her.

"Yes, he does have lovely eyes," Lily grins, allowing herself a delighted giggle as the realisation that she's going to Hogsmeade with Rudy _fucking _Menzies properly sinks in. How lovely.

There's just one issue. The elephant in the room, as it were.

Marlene broaches the subject first. "What about James? He'll be crushed."

"That's not my fault, Marl. I've told Potter a thousand times how I feel about him."

Always Potter, never James.

"That's true." Marlene chews at her lip, as if debating her next words. "Fuck. Well, it's his own fault really. Karma, you could say."

"I just hope that he leaves Rudy alone. You know what he's like." Lily shares a dark look with Marlene, picking up her cup of tea to sip.

It had been her third year when boys had stopped thinking that girls were stupid and begun to notice little Lily Evans was becoming rather pretty. It had been near the end of fourth year, when yet another boy had inexplicably begun to ignore her after asking her to Hogsmeade, that she had finally figured it out. Potter and his mates – mainly Black – had hexed the life out of anyone who had dared to approach "James' girl".

By fifth year, the young wizards of Hogwarts had figured out that Lily Evans was strictly Off Limits and steered well clear. If Potter scared off Rudy, she was unsure if she'd ever be able to talk to him again.

And then Marlene says the words that scare her more than Potter's reaction ever could.

"Oh my god, you have to let me style you this is going to be so great you are going to look fucking amazing!"

"Fuck," she thinks.

* * *

"So she's?"

"Yep."

"With him?"

"Mm-hmm."

"And it's definitely?"

"Afraid so."

"And there's no way?"

"Looks unlikely. Sorry mate."

"Bugger."

James lies back on his four-poster bed, staring up at the crimson ceiling of his dormitory.

Of all the people Lily could go to Hogsmeade with, Menzies was one of the worst. Not because he was a bad person or anything; James actually got on quite well with the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain.

Quite the opposite, in fact. Rudy was one of the nicest people James had ever met. He had never heard anyone say a bad word about him.

It was almost worse than if she had agreed to go with Snape; at least James could hate Snape and justify it. But if he followed his usual method operandi and hexed Menzies into a quivering heap, not only would Lily hate him, but he would feel like an utter heel.

Remus Lupin breaks the somewhat uneasy silence that has descended over the dorm.

"Are you going to hex him?" he asks, with a rather weary tone. As the nominal authority figure in the group, Remus often struggled to balance the responsibilities of his badge with the behaviour of his friends.

James ponders the question a moment, but he already knows the answer.

"No, I'm not."

"Oh good, because I'd feel like a proper bastard if we did. I'd support you mate, but Menzies is a fucking top bloke," chimes in Padfoot.

"I know. I almost wish he was an arsehole," James replies, being met with nods from all three.

Directly across the room, little Peter Pettigrew is at the desk, scribbling away furiously in an attempt to finish a forgotten Charms essay due first thing in the morning. "What _are_ you going to do about it?" he asks, without looking up.

This is the question James doesn't want to answer, because he knows what it means.

He's evidently silent a moment too long, as his fellow Marauders concentrate all their attentions upon him, the dorm falling silent as Peter stops scratching away at his parchment momentarily.

Finally, he answers. "Nothing. I'm going to do nothing." He hesitates a further second, letting the others know that this is a Momentous Decision. "I'm going to move on."

James Potter is officially trying to get over Lily Evans.

The silence is deafening, until Sirius breaks it with a stunned noise.

"_Fuck_, Prongs."

* * *

So, it's springtime in Fifth Year and Lily's got a date with the delectable Rudy Menzies. James is moving on – or so he says. Will he be able to stick to his decision? Find out next time, only on Victoria Concordia Crescit.

I hope you like this. It's my first attempt at anything other than a oneshot and I hope I manage to stick to it. Feel free to let me know if you're intrigued, interested or incapable of giving a damn about this story.


	2. First Encounters

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns everything you recognise.

* * *

It's nearly a week after Rudy asked her to Hogsmeade and Lily is still feeling a slight thrill whenever she thinks about it.

She hasn't seen him properly since, only glimpses here and there in the corridors. Whenever she does manage to catch his eye – his incredibly blue eyes – she feels herself smile almost automatically, which is matched by his grin and head duck, as though he still can't quite believe it.

She thinks she enjoys this more: not seeing him every day has only increased her anticipation for Saturday's date. Despite promising herself at the age of 11 that she'd never be a girl who's entire life revolved around impressing a boy, Lily's found herself oddly concerned with how she'll look on Saturday. Hair up or down? Her green jumper that she loves or the chunky cream cardigan that makes her feel rather like one of her mum's fashionable friends? Would the cardigan make her look like a little girl playing dress up?

So wrapped up in her internal clothing debate that she's hardly noticing where she's going, Lily rounds a corner in something of a daze and bounces off someone coming the other way.

"Oooof," she says elegantly, collapsing to the ground like Bambi on ice.

A hand appears in her vision, which she gratefully takes while an apology half-forms on her lips. When she sees just who's hand it is though, her apology dies a violent death while a surge of anger runs through her.

"Potter!"

It's almost automatic at this point. Deep down, Lily knows Potter hasn't knocked her over deliberately, that he's just an idiot in the wrong place at the wrong time. At this point though, she's too used to their arguments to think so rationally.

"Are you just lurking there, waiting to knock people over? Is that what you do now? Do you find it _funny?_" she hisses, folding her arms across her chest while she waits for his retort.

Oddly, she sometimes almost enjoys the exchanges between the two. She'd never admit that to anyone, mind.

Potter looks at her rather oddly, squinting slightly as if suffering from pain.

He breathes in deeply, before a more normal look returns to his face.

"No, Evans, I don't _lurk_ anywhere. I'm very sorry I knocked you down: I honestly had no idea you were there," he says, sounding surprisingly sincere.

Lily scoffs, opening her mouth to snap something about his idiocy and maybe insult his stupid hair, when something extremely surprising happens.

Potter moves past her and walks on down the corridor, not even stopping to look back at her.

_What_?

She waits a second for him to turn around and shout out a request for a date, or a ridiculous compliment on her appearance like he always does. But he doesn't: he simply keeps walking and disappears around the corner at the end of the corridor.

Lily's surprised to find that she's slightly hurt at his apparent lack of interest.

* * *

As soon as he's round the corner and out of sight of Evans, James breaks into a run, taking a shortcut through a tapestry and heading for his dormitory.

He gabbles the password to the Fat Lady, scrambles up the stairs to the Marauders' room and bursts through the door like a knife-wielding maniac.

Two rather surprised looking sets of eyes look up at him: Remus & Sirius are both lying on their respective beds, apparently having been in conversation before his noisy interruption.

Sirius is first to recover, as usual.

"Prongs? Fucking hell mate, is there a reason you look like a hippogriff just shat on your dinner plate at the Hallowe'en feast?"

He's always had a way with words, has Padfoot.

On his own bed, Moony lets out an amused snort, before indicating that James should sit down.

"I'm guessing you've talked to Lily then," he says, amber eyes focusing on James' face with an unintelligible look behind them.

James sits on his bed, nodding silently at Moony's astute observation. His heart is still pounding quite hard, something he knows has nothing to do with his mad dash here and everything to do with pretending Evans doesn't mean anything to him anymore.

He looks up, meeting both of their gazes, before opening his mouth and allowing his words to tumble out, almost falling over each other in their haste to explain his encounter with Lily Evans almost 30 minutes ago.

"…and then I almost told her to have a good day but I thought it would've seemed insincere so I just settled for a kind of look then I pushed past her and walked away and oh _god_ it was so difficult not to turn and see how she looked and then I got round the corner and I ran up here to tell you three. Where's Peter, anyway?" he finishes, breathing in fully for the first time since he started talking.

"Detention," answers Padfoot. "Set off a dungbomb outside Sluggy's office, then fell over his own bag running away. Fucking clown." This is said not unkindly, more in the vein of a brother laughing at his infinitely more clumsy bretheren.

James nods amusedly, not altogether surprised at Peter's lack of grace – he's finally had a growth spurt recently and hasn't quite gotten used to the new length of his legs – before growing more serious.

"What do I do, guys? Do I just keep ignoring her and hope it goes away or should I just treat her as a mate and hope that eventually my heart treats her as a mate too?" he asks, wincing at just how stupid that last part sounds.

Padfoot snorts.

"Yes, yes, that was a big girl thing to say, look at me I'm a girl."

"Glad you can accept it Prongs. Now: Prongs; Moony; come and join me as we put our heads together and solve James' Big Evans Dilemma".

"Er, mate. We're friends and that, but I've seen – and heard – just who has 'joined you' there before, so that's not happening.

"Do you want the help of a fucking genius or not?"

"I do, but I can't ask Marlene. I think she'd have to take Evans' side, don't you?"

"Oy, low blow."

This last is said by Sirius, wearing a slightly rueful grin. He's fancied Marlene ever since he saw her kick Severus Snape squarely between the legs for hexing her First Year cousin a while ago.

He looks once more at James and Remus, grin sliding off his face.

"Seriously, we need a plan for this. Moony, get your overly-large brain in here."

As Padfoot and Moony bicker over this backhanded compliment, James can't help but feel better about his situation.

He might not have the girl, but he's definitely got the best mates he could wish for.

* * *

What is the Marauders' plan? Why does Lily feel weird that James ignored her? What did Peter have to do in detention? All this and more, next time on VCC.

I just want to thank everyone who looked at/reviewed/favourited this story. You are all champions.


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